


A Puppet's Burden

by ThreeCirclesofVaryingSizes



Category: Puppet History (Web Series)
Genre: Be Careful What You Wish For, Curses, Drabble, Dubious Morality, Gen, Genies, Immortality, One Shot, Professor is Baby but also a little bit mad with immortality, Trickster!Professor, also i added the shane character tag for more hits sue me, but just one, oh boy i really cranked this out in an hour didn't i, one swear word
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:53:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26420674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThreeCirclesofVaryingSizes/pseuds/ThreeCirclesofVaryingSizes
Summary: Who is the Professor and why won't he let Ryan Bergara win the History Cup?
Comments: 11
Kudos: 62





	A Puppet's Burden

“Of course I didn’t win.” Ryan glared directly into his web camera to intimidate the puppet. “You’re a cheating bastard.”

“You’re just mad you don’t know anything,” the Professor shot back.

“No one else knows anything either! They all just guess!”

“Well, you’re a bad guesser.” The Professor couldn’t shrug so he tilted his head slightly to mock his student.

“I’ll kill you dead, man.” Ryan’s voice got low while the episode’s guest (and triumphant History Master) was distracted by jelly beans.

“I’d like to see you try, Beef Boy.”

Though his tone was playful, the Professor was genuine in his request. For too long he had roamed the earth, learning new facts and meeting various witnesses to historical events big and small. And it wasn’t easy. The world is a scary place, and the Professor had found himself in the middle of plagues (both pathological and psychological), near sights of massive catastrophes (both natural and man-made), and in the cross-hairs of a conspiracy or two. But the little blue puppet kept wandering on, alone in his journey.

It wasn’t always this way. The Professor can barely remember his life before. He has long since conceded this to be a blessing. His former life is best forgotten as it could only bring sadness, longing, and even shame, in what he was willing to give up in the pursuit of knowledge.

Yes. Shame.

Shame is what leaves the only crystal clear memory of a past life perfectly intact within him. A memory of a mistake, or perhaps, a lapse in judgment. Or even, as the Professor would sometimes think bitterly, a fatal flaw dealing a devastating blow to the Professor’s life as he knew it. He still dreams about it sometimes. The old bottle. The malevolent genie. And one single ill-thought-out wish. And the rest is….

Well, you know.

All the Professor had left are his notes and a single goal burning inside his jelly bean heart: find that genie to reverse that wish.

It wasn’t until the 21st century did the professor come up with a new plan. It’s been centuries since he’s seen the genie, and while he still would like to give that guy a piece of his mind, it was getting harder and harder for the little puppet to be taken seriously as he traveled the world. Those new-fangled airplanes had more and more security measures that he had no time for, and he hadn’t trusted ocean liners since 1916.

And he was tired. The Professor had seen humanity develop more inventive and horrific ways of doing the things they’ve always done to each other, and he was tired of it. And yet, he could not rest.

The Professor decided to start living up to his name and began teaching full-time those who were willing to learn. With his encyclopedic knowledge of history and his address book with the names and numbers of every inanimate object with musical talent, the Professor quickly became a hit, earning his own show on the Watcher YouTube channel.

It is here where he met Ryan Bergara. The Professor thought the lad was a worthy, if not ornery, opponent in classroom debates, more so than any passing student he’s met in his travels. The Professor soon realized this could become an advantageous alignment.

The Professor proposed the idea of the History Cup, an idea his producers at Watcher very much liked. It turned his simple comedic lecture on history into a game show, where two people competed for the coveted title of History Master.

But underneath the facade of friendly competition was the Professor’s sinister and downright mischievous plan: turning Ryan Bergara from mere student to a fully-fledged apprentice.

Every week, the Professor awarded points, jelly beans, and inevitable History Cup to Ryan’s opponent, and every week, Ryan had to return to face someone new and fight for a modicum of respect from the enigmatic puppet. The Professor made sure to keep the guests happy with bonus points and musical numbers, all the while teaching Ryan not just about history, but about the pain of something being just out of reach. A pain the Professor knew only too well.

So, the Professor played along with Ryan’s empty threats, knowing that one day, he will be ready for the title of the True History Master. And when that day comes, Ryan Bergara won’t just win a plastic cup full of jelly beans, but also the task of carrying the full weight of the heavy heavy book we call History.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written in a frenzy after watching the last episode of Puppet History (Isaac Newton's Nemesis, if you're wondering), but I really like how it turned out.
> 
> And who knows, I may write an update if Shane drops any more nuggets of information on the Professor in future episodes.


End file.
